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My Zim contact explains why fasting is
good for the people

Cape Times

26 July, 2007

By John Scott

Interview with one Doc Mtusi who
appears to be one of the few people who understands Zimbabwe's economic
policy. He knows whats going on even better than his boss, Finance Minister
Samuel Mumbengegwi who announced in Masvingo that there was no need for
people to hoard food.

"But if people don't hoard food, what will they eat
when the shops run empty?" the Doc was asked after he had agreed to an
interview."Who says they will run empty?" he retorted

"Shelves are
already empty of basic foodstuffs.""Then we will order the shopkeepers to
fill them. We have already jailed a few who refused to do so. It is simple
economics. We will also jail anyone who hoards food because that is what has
caused the shelves to be empty."

"Sorry to cross swords with you Doc but
your government is forcing shopkeepers to sell all their existing stocks for
less than they paid for them. How can you expect them to buy in more
supplies at the wholesale price if they know that by selling them at the
government's retail rate they'll make a bigger loss. It's a quick way to go
bankrupt?""No one ever said saving Zimbabwe's economy would be easy. We all
have sacrifices to make?"

"My point is that you can't blame shoppers
for thinking that, unless they quickly buy up whats left, there'll soon be
no food to buy. They are not stupid. They can see that all the shopkeepers
will either be bankrupt or in jail?""Änd my point is that it is
unpatriotic hoarding of food gives the impression that we have a problem,
which clearly we haven't, except in the South African media's mind. I'm
surprised that Mbeki still allows you to write this nonsense. We are relying
on comrade Zuma to make you change your tune once he takes over." The Doc
responded.

"But until then, Doc, why have you now even passed a law to
stop Zimbabwians importing food from SA. If they can't hoard food, they have
to get it from somewhere. Otherwise they will starve?""We don't call it
starving. We call it fasting. Fasting is actually good for you. Lots of
famous people fasted for the benefit of their people. Ghandi, for instance,
fasted. In our case, the people themselves well be encouraged to fast
thereby strengthening themselves against the onslaught of colonial
imperialism." Doc said.

"I'm sure they really would prefer to eat,
most people do.""We have no objection in principle to people eating." Doc
conceded. "Those of us in government all eat, but only because persons in
our important positions have to. What we must guard against, though, is the
belief that ordinary people have the right to break the law if they are
hungry."

"Thats how the French Revolution started." said
interviewer"Thank goodness we won our revolution 27 glorious years ago. So
there is no need to worry." declared Doc.

War veterans harass business leaders in
Masvingo

Zim Online

Wednesday 01 August
2007

By Regerai Marwezu

MASVINGO - War veterans in the southern town of Masvingo on Monday
threatened to "deal" with business leaders who are defying a government
directive issued in June to reduce prices of basic goods by 50
percent.

The former liberation war fighters, who spearheaded the
government's violent farm seizures seven years ago, delivered hostile
letters to white and Asian businessmen in the town threatening to take over
their properties.

The war veterans, led by notorious ex-fighter
Francis Zimuto, also known as Black Jesus, accused the business leaders of
defying a government directive to reduce prices by half as well as roll back
prices to mid-June levels.

Mohammad Lambat, a businessman in
Masvingo, confirmed receiving one of the threatening letters from the war
veterans.

A copy of the letter seen by ZimOnline warned business
leaders "not to risk their lives" by failing to support the government
programme on prices.

An official from the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries (CZI) who refused to be named because he is not authorised to
speak to the media, said his organisation had received numerous complaints
from the business community over the threats by war veterans.

"We have received numerous reports of harassment, intimidation and even
assaults from the business community and we are busy engaging government to
ensure that there is calm," he said.

President Robert Mugabe's
ruling ZANU PF party has used the war veterans as foot soldiers in every
major election held since 2000.

The main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party and human rights groups have in the past
accused the former fighters of intimidating and harassing government
opponents during election times.

Zimbabwe was plunged into further
economic turmoil last June after Mugabe ordered businesses to slash prices
in a government crackdown codenamed Operation Dzikisa Mutengo (Operation
Reduce Prices).

The directive has resulted in empty shop shelves as
hungry Zimbabweans swept away all basic goods from shops with at least 6 200
business leaders having been arrested during the crackdown. -
ZimOnline

MDC files Z$504 billion lawsuit against
police

Zim Online

Wednesday 01 August 2007

By
Batsirai Muranje

HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party has filed a Z$504 billion lawsuit against the
police for breaching their role of protecting public order when they
violently crushed a court-sanctioned rally earlier this year.

In a
letter of demand filed with the civil division of the Attorney General's
office last week, the MDC is demanding Z$504 billion in damages after the
police thwarted the rally on 18 February.

The rally at Zimbabwe
Grounds in Harare's working class suburb of Highfield had been sanctioned by
a High Court order a day earlier.

"You are liable, jointly and severally
for the damages suffered by lour clients because you breached the duty of
care you owed to our client," said the MDC's lawyer, Jessie Majome in her
letter.

"You further breached the duty of care because instead of
actually providing security and ensuring that there was peace and order, you
reprehensibly became the perpetrators of unlawful conduct," said
Majome.

The Zimbabwe opposition party led by Morgan Tsvangirai is suing
the police in terms of the State Liabilities Act that makes the state liable
for failing to protect citizens' rights.

"The police flagrantly
defied the court order and denied our clients entry into the stadium in
order to hold the rally, thus infringing our clients' right to freedom of
assembly, association and expression," their lawyers said.

Police
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and four other senior police officers are
cited as respondents.

Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi who is in charge
of the police, could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit last
night.

Hundreds of MDC supporters and senior party officials were
seriously injured followed violent clashes in Highfield in February after
the police sealed the venue in the suburb to prevent the rally.

A few
weeks later, the MDC under the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, called another rally
at the same venue on 11 March in defiance of a police ban on political
meetings and rallies in Harare.

Tsvangirai and several other
opposition and civic leaders were detained and severely assaulted by state
security agents for attempting to organize the "illegal" meeting.

The
Zimbabwe opposition party says rallies are the only means at its disposal to
communicate its political message and advance its political programmes with
voters after President Robert Mugabe banned independent daily newspapers
over the past four years. - ZimOnline

Pressure group accuses police of hoarding basic
goods

BULAWAYO - The Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) pressure
group has urged the government to root out corrupt tendencies among the
police who are enforcing price controls around the country.

In fliers
distributed to the public during demonstrations in Bulawayo on Monday, WOZA
demanded that Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi investigate corrupt
activities of police officers enforcing the price controls.

The pressure
group accused members of the police who are part of the taskforce on price
controls of hoarding basic goods for re-sale on the parallel market at
inflated prices.

"If the Minister of Home Affairs conducted an unbiased
investigation into the parallel of black market, he would find that it is
family members of the police and the army who are allowed to buy in bulk and
take these goods onto the pavements for resale at inflated
prices.

"The uniformed forces should join the queues with immediate
effect instead of having their own queues," read part of the
flier.

Zimbabwe was plunged into economic chaos last June after President
Robert Mugabe's government ordered shops to roll back prices to mid-June
levels as well as reduce prices by 50 percent.

The directive is
resulted in empty shelves in most shops after Zimbabweans took advantage of
the bargains to sweep away virtually every basic goods from
shops.

"Slashing of prices is not enough - something has to be done to
ensure there are enough supplies of basic commodities for everyone. This
will not happen if corruption and inflation are not tackled by meaningful
political change," read the flier.

But most of the goods have found
their way onto the parallel market at double their normal
price.

There were no arrests following the protest by WOZA.

The
women's pressure group has in the past staged demonstrations in major cities
and towns demanding an end to the country's bitter eight-year economic
crisis that has been described by the World Bank as unprecedented for a
country not at war. - ZimOnline

Water
Shortages in Capital Leave Residents Desperate

HARARE, Jul 31 (IPS) - Taps in the
Zimbabwean capital, Harare, are running dry even though the city’s main supply
dams are more than 60 percent full, according to figures from the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority (ZINWA). With more than half of Harare's three million
inhabitants now experiencing water shortages, residents are resorting to
desperate measures to find supplies.

Carrying a large bucket to work has
become a daily task for Tedious Marembo, employed as a cleaner at a block of
government offices in the city. This building is never without water, because it
houses three government ministries. So Marembo fills his bucket at work to
provide water for his wife and two children who live in Kuwadzana, a poor suburb
in the south-west of Harare.

"My wife has to walk a long distance to get
water at a church in my neighbourhood where a borehole was sunk, (and) she has
to pay 50,000 dollars for a bucket. The only way I can help her cope with
household chores is to carry with me a 20-litre bucket to bring water from my
work place," he said.

At the official exchange rate, 50,000 Zimbabwe
dollars is worth 200 U.S. dollars; at the black-market rate, however, it would
only buy 36 U.S. cents at the time of writing. On average, civil servants earn
four million Zimbabwe dollars -- a little over 22 U.S. dollars per month, at
unofficial rates.

Harare has experienced intermittent water shortages
for some two years now, due mainly to poor management and ageing infrastructure.
Water experts from a Scandinavian development agency who preferred to remain
anonymous said ZINWA management was inadequate because the water authority was
not run by professionals, but rather by political appointees hired by Water
Resources and Infrastructural Development Minister Munacho Mutezo.

The
experts believe the capital's water distribution system, built long before
independence in 1980, has gone without proper maintenance for many years.
Critically important pumps that have an expected lifespan of between 15 and 20
years had not been replaced since they were installed, for instance.

Sanitation has gone the way of water provision, as members of the
Mashapa household -- also in Kuwadzana -- can attest. A blocked pipe caused a
fetid pool of sewage to build up around their house, and this outflow now slowly
winds its way through the suburb to a nearby stream.

"We are locking
children in the house. They can no longer play outside because of the danger of
contracting diseases. Cholera is right in our midst; we have reported to ZINWA
and they came…but as soon as they left the problem started (again); we now don’t
even know what to do and who to tell," said Olivia Mashapa, mother of the
family.

While the Mashapa children may be kept away from the sewage,
others are not: primary school children who use a path alongside the Mashapa
home are obliged to pick their way through waste matter, while other children
play in the effluent -- and are exposed to water borne diseases.

At the
far end of the suburb, still more residents are at risk, as they buy vegetables
from vendors who sell their wares right next to open sewage. Many toilets in
this area are blocked and can no longer be used.

"I did not bath today;
I have been up and down the suburbs looking for water. Sometimes we get the
water from the main local authority office, but today they are refusing to let
us into their premises to fetch water, although we are still paying our water
bills in full," said Memory Mucherahowa, an elderly street vendor.

For
the fortunate few who can afford membership for the city centre gym, visits
there have become a necessity -- not only for exercise, but also for a shower.

The frequency of service delivery problems increased significantly after
the management of Harare’s water system was transferred earlier this year from
the City Council to ZINWA. Opposition party members believe the transfer was
based more on political considerations than managerial criteria.

Two
reports tabled recently in Zimbabwe’s House of Assembly by the parliamentary
portfolio committee on local government made it clear that ZINWA, a parastatal,
lacked funds, equipment and above all, the expertise to run the city’s water
affairs.

"Although ZINWA reiterates that it has the capacity to take
over the entirety of water and sewerage services in the country's urban areas,
local authorities and the public feel that ZINWA is not able to undertake this
task," one of the reports stated.

"In view of the evidence gathered, the
committee recommends that the cabinet reconsider the directive as the takeover
of the services from the city of Harare has proved that ZINWA has no capacity."

Government has however not implemented recommendations for the city’s
water management to be returned to the council, and ZINWA is in the process of
extending its reach to other cities and towns including the country’s second
largest city, Bulawayo.

IPS was not able to get comment from ZINWA about
the complaints made against it.

The water shortages constitute just one
of many difficulties confronting Harare, and Zimbabwe as a whole. Runaway
inflation and high unemployment have driven many into poverty -- and the United
Nations World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that just over two million of the
country's approximately 13 million citizens will experience food shortages "as
early as the third quarter of 2007".

This figure "will rise to 4.1
million at the peak of the crisis in the months before the next main harvest in
April 2008," the WFP website goes on to say.

Economic difficulties are
paralleled by a political crisis that has resulted in a number of disputed
elections, and widespread human rights abuses.

* This feature is the
first in a two-part series on water shortages in Zimbabwe. The second item,
'DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: The City of "Passport Size" Ablutions', focuses on the
water situation in Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo.
(END/2007)

The City of "Passport Size" Ablutions

IPS news

By Ephraim
Nsingo*

HARARE, Jul 31 (IPS) - The City Council of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's
second largest city, has issued a warning to residents of a possible
outbreak of disease following a massive cut in the city's water supply. This
is the first time in Bulawayo's history such a health warning has been
issued.

"Water will be available for seven hours in every two days and
during that time people are advised to fill their containers and cover them
up. The City Council is aware that water cuts may result in the outbreak of
diseases, and we wish to advise members of the public to take preventive
measures," said council spokesperson Phathisa Nyathi recently.

The
water shortage has been ascribed to drought, a burgeoning population and the
lack of co-operation between the City Council and the Zimbabwe National
Water Authority (ZINWA) -- a parastatal.

Bulawayo is the capital city
of Matabeleland, a southern region that has for decades been prone to
droughts. When the last of its five dams was completed in 1979, the city had
a population of around 250,000 and the City Council could manage the needs
of residents and factories.

However, those same five dams are unable to
cope with the requirements of the 1.5 million people who now live in
Bulawayo. And, while authorities have in recent months introduced strict
water-rationing measures, these have failed to stop the water crisis from
becoming the worst in the city's history.

Earlier this month, the
council was forced to decommission the Lower Ncema dam because it ran dry.
Two other dams, the Upper Ncema and the Umzingwane, had already been
decommissioned for the same reason.

Officials have warned that Inyankuni
will be also decommissioned soon, as it is only about a tenth full. This
would leave the Insiza dam as the last water reservoir for the
city.

Insiza is Bulawayo's largest dam, with a capacity of just over 173
million cubic metres. Currently, it is standing at slightly above 88 million
cubic metres; according to Nyathi, this means that "Collectively, the city's
supply dams are only 24 percent full, which is worrisome."

Bulawayo
needs about 120,000 cubic metres of water per day, but at the time of
writing had the capacity to pump only 69,000 cubic metres. This figure is
expected to drop to 46,000 in October when the Inyankuni dam is
decommissioned.

Eighty boreholes were sunk during the last major
drought in the early 1990s. But, these fall far short of meeting the
residents' requirements, especially since most of them are no longer
operational.

The water crisis is having a significant effect on the way
most people in Bulawayo go about their daily lives. The upper and middle
classes are coping with water restrictions reasonably well, but the
overwhelming majority of people living in the vast shanty towns that have
swollen the city's population in recent years are
struggling.

Residents of some of the poorer suburbs now have to walk long
distances to the nearest borehole to draw water, while profiteers exploit
their plight by selling water at exorbitant prices.

For many, bathing
has become a luxury as they reserve the little available water for other
uses. Instead of bathing, they now perform what is known as a "passport
size", wiping the face and other essentials with a damp towel.

"With the
way things are going, it is very unlikely we will get any supplies (of
water)," said Memory Ndlovu of Emakhandeni suburb. "We now have to walk all
the way to Old Luveve where there is a borehole, but even the borehole
sometimes runs dry, as it serves people from (several other suburbs).
Something has to be done urgently otherwise a disaster is looming
here."

People in Emakhandeni say water cuts have exceeded the time
periods indicated by the City Council. "They told us the water shedding
would be for many hours, but now it's turning out to be many days," noted
another resident, Thabiso Ncube.

The current crisis could exert
pressure on the Bulawayo City Council to allow ZINWA to take over the city's
water and sewerage system. From the beginning of the year, there has been
fierce resistance to this proposed takeover, with both politicians and
residents arguing that water management should remain in the hands of
council.

ZINWA has already taken over Harare's water management system
and has not proved to be very effective in the country's capital.

If
ZINWA were to assume control of Bulawayo's water, however, it might open the
way for the city to tap the idle Mtshabezi dam or the Nyamandlovu Aquifer --
two reservoirs are under ZINWA management.

A 33-kilometre long pipeline
between the Mtshabezi dam and Bulawayo's existing Ncema system appears to be
the most viable short-term solution. But even that option would take several
months to implement.

The obvious long-term solutions to the water
shortage would include the construction of new, larger dams and the laying
of a water pipeline from the Zambezi River to Bulawayo. These solutions
would, however, require a considerable investment -- unimaginable in the
country's present situation.

Zimbabwe is battling economic difficulties
that have seen inflation climb to four digits, widespread job losses and
shortages of essential goods such as fuel. This is taking place in the midst
of a political crisis characterised by clampdowns on opposition members,
rights activists and the media by the government of President Robert
Mugabe.

* This feature is the second in a two-part series on water
shortages in Zimbabwe. The first item, ' DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: Water
Shortages in Capital Leave Residents Desperate', deals with the water
situation in Harare. (END/2007)

Zimbabwe's Opposition Rejects New Currency
Denomination

VOA

By Peter ClotteyWashington, D.C.01
August 2007

Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) has sharply dismissed as cosmetic President Robert Mugabe's
government circulation of a new currency denomination. The new 200,000
Zimbabwean dollar notes, which will be issued by the Reserve Bank today
(Wednesday) is meant to cut down on the country's hyperinflation rate,
perceived to be the highest in the world. But the MDC says the new money
shows that the ruling ZANU-PF is bankrupt of ideas and unable to formulate
policies that would alleviate the suffering of the people. The MDC is
therefore calling on the government to resign and hand over power to the
opposition.

Nelson Chamisa is the spokesman for the MDC. From the
capital, Harare he tells reporter Peter Clottey that resolving Zimbabwe's
governance problem is the only solution to the country's economic
emancipation.

"Our position is very clear that clearly, it shows that the
crisis continues to escalate; the inflation even continue to even worsen, in
fact we are in a hyperinflation environment to the extend that we now need
to print almost new notes almost on a monthly basis. For us it's an
indictment on the regime and the regime's policies. We feel that what we now
need is a clean slate of policies instead of these piecemeal measures, which
are just meant to firefight and try to massage the crisis," Chamisa
noted.

He said President Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF government should
be blamed for what he described as the economic crisis facing the
country.

"It clearly shows that what we have is a regime which is so
desperate, and which has run out of ideas, bankrupt on policies and
programs, and clearly, when they start printing money as a way of
controlling inflation, it clearly shows that there is a death of ideas;
there is a death of vision in terms of where we are going," he
said.

Chamisa said the MDC has been vindicated by the recent economic
hardship many ordinary Zimbabweans are experiencing.

"It's actually a
confirmation of what we've always said as MDC that until we resolve the
governance issue, we are not going to find any economic solution because we
will be tinkering on just the cosmetics. We want to address the fundamental
issue, and the marrow of the matter here is to deal with the politics of the
country, restoring democratic rights, making sure that we give people
fundamental freedom," Chamisa pointed out.

He said the opposition has
plans to rescue the country from what he termed, the economic
doldrums.

"As the MDC we have a reconstructing and stabilization
document, which is the alternative to the government programs and policies,
which has clearly shown that they are barren, and they are not capable of
turning around the economy," he said.

Chamisa said the problem the
country faces now should be blamed on the president, since Chamisa said he
has been in charge at the time of independence.

"President Mugabe has
clearly failed! He has delivered 27 years of agony. Of course we must say
that in the first years, it was better. But now, he has failed and he has
clearly been overwhelmed by the economic challenges, by the political
challenges. And he has resorted now to repression, he has resorted to finger
pointing, and he has resorted to a blame game, without realizing that he,
himself is at the center of the crisis. In fact when his fingers point at
the MDC, four of his fingers are pointing at himself. He must remember that
he is the one who has been entrusted at the helm of this country since 1980,
and he has nobody else to blame except himself," he said.

Q&A: Zimbabwe's economy

BBC

Tuesday, 31 July 2007

Price controls have ravaged stocks in Zimbabwe's
stores

Zimbabwe has just
about the worst-performing economy in the world. Some say the economic problems
could soon bring down the government of President Robert Mugabe, although that
has been predicted many times before.

People are struggling with soaring inflation, widespread
joblessness and the exodus of millions of Zimbabweans, both to neighbouring
countries and to Europe and the US.

What's going on with Zimbabwe's economy?

By any measure, Zimbabwe is in deep financial trouble.

In many stores, the shelves are nearly empty much of the time,
and prices are skyrocketing for what goods remain as hyperinflation sets in.

About four out of five people are estimated to be out of work -
at least as far as the official economy is concerned.

The situation is so bad that about 3,000 people a day are
thought to be crossing Zimbabwe's borders into neighbouring countries.

And increasingly, many Zimbabweans are dependent on support from
relatives and friends abroad to keep food on the table and roofs over their
heads.

Hyperinflation - what's that?

This is what happens when the value of money plummets.

Stampedes have broken out when goods arrive at some
stores

In Zimbabwe's case, the near-5,000% annual rate of inflation
means that a loaf of bread bought today is about 50 times more expensive - in
cash terms - than it was a year ago.

And prices are continuing to accelerate, in some cases doubling
in weeks - or even, on occasion, days.

Wages, on the other hand, are nowhere near keeping up.

One correspondent recently told the BBC News website that one
candle can cost twice the official government wage for a farm worker, while the
price tag for a single banana is 15 times what she paid seven years ago for a
four-bedroom house.

Another effect is that people simply do not hang onto money. As
soon as it is earnt, it must be spent - because prices will have risen sharply
even by the following day.

How do people cope?

Barter is increasingly common.

So, too, is a reliance on remittances from abroad - in money but
increasingly in goods. Several shopping websites now allow expatriate
Zimbabweans to order food supplies to be paid for in foreign currencies and
delivered to relatives at home.

Similarly, with petrol shortages endemic and prices spiralling -
not to mention power cuts, often for 20 hours in the day - one enterprising firm
now allows vouchers to be sent as text messages, to pay for fuel in US dollars.

Wherever possible, people exporting and importing goods do so on
the black market, since a sizable slice of foreign currency exchanged at the
official rate has to be kept in accounts which the government can use to feed
its need for foreign exchange.

In any case, exchange rates on the unofficial or "parallel
market" can be 20 times more generous than the official one of Z$15,000 to the
US dollar.

How did it get to be like this?

For many people, the key cause of the current problems is
Zimbabwe's land reform programme.

Most of the country's most productive farmland remained in white
hands after independence in 1979, and through the 1990s the government of
President Robert Mugabe worked to shift ownership.

By 1999, however, with little movement, the government unveiled
plans to seize land without compensation - a process which started in earnest
the following year.

Revaluations and new currency have failed to halt
inflation

As hundreds of farms were taken over - sometimes by local
people, often by senior government officials - production, and export, of grain
and tobacco collapsed.

Huge spending on involvement in the conflict in the Democratic
Republic of Congo was also a drain on the public purse.

The result was a food crisis, and a battering for the economy as
foreign exchange earnings slumped - both from farming and from tourism, amid
violence surrounding the land reform programme.

What is the government saying - and doing?

As far as President Mugabe and his ministers are concerned, land
reform has nothing to do with the country's economic travails.

Instead, sabotage by the West in general, and the UK - the
former colonial power - in particular, is responsible.

They point to sanctions imposed against the country - although
these are aimed at leaders, rather than at the economy as a whole.

And the government has also taken a string of measures intended
to stem the country's decline.

Among them have been limits on foreign currency movements, a
revaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar, the introduction of vouchers instead of
banknotes, and - most recently - the imposition of stringent price controls.

Cuts of as much as 50% on many commodities are now required by
law, and thousands of businesspeople have been arrested for pricing goods at
levels it sees as amounting to profiteering.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to "indigenise"
foreign-owned businesses by making sure black Zimbabweans have majority control.

And Mr Mugabe is also promising to print even more money, should
government projects require it.

Is any of this working?

President Mugabe blames foreign sabotage for Zimbabwe's
ills

No.

The hyperinflation affects raw materials and wages as well as
retail prices, after all.

So businesses argue that at the prices the government demands,
they simply cannot afford to make or buy the goods in the first place.

The result, Zimbabweans report, is hoarding of what goods
remain; stampedes whenever a shop acquires a much-needed staple like cooking oil
or maize meal; and further hardship.

And the import restrictions may make things worse, since the
collapse of domestic output means goods brought across the border are often the
only thing on the shelves.

Printing even more money, meanwhile, will simply add to the
hyperinflation.

Some analysts say the situation will lead to a complete collapse
of the economy and the government by the end of the year but each time people
have said in the past that things couldn't get any worse, they have.

So is anyone gaining from this?

A few businesses are making huge profits from the black market -
for example those with good connections who can buy hard currency at the
official rate and sell it to those who need it at a far higher price.

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has also been roaring ahead - it has
been one of the best-performing in the world in recent years.

As the government prints money, and interest rates have failed
to keep up with the rampant inflation, assets such as stocks have been one of
the few places where Zimbabweans have been able to put their money so as to
retain its value.

Zimbabwe Government Alleged To Block NGO Food Assistance
Efforts

VOA

By Patience RusereWashington31 July
2007

Zimbabwean Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has
warned councilors in the rural Mashonaland West district of Zvimba not to
let non-governmental organizations distribute food in the area, telling
local officials such groups intend to use food aid to destabilize the
government, local and other sources said.

The sources said Chombo
issued the instructions last week in a meeting with local councilors. His
intervention comes as the country is grappling with food shortages and
experts warn some 4 million Zimbabweans will need food aid by
early-2008.

Chombo could not be reached for comment. VOA was unable to
obtain confirmation from NGO managers, because officials either were not
available or declined to speak about the highly sensitive issue. The Harare
government requires authorization from the international down to the local
level for food distribution, and has shut down food distribution programs in
the past with little or no explanation.

Spokesman Fambai Ngirande of
the National Association of Non-Governmental organizations said interference
with food aid has mounted as elections approach. The country is scheduled to
hold local, general and presidential elections in early 2008 and critics
have charged in the past that Harare uses food to exert political
pressure.

Ngirande told reporter Patience Rusere that international as
well as domestic humanitarian organizations face increased official
restrictions

Zimbabwe NGOs Looking Into Roadside Murders Of Student, Two
Others

VOA

By Carole GombakombaWashington31 July
2007

Zimbabwean non-governmental organizations are
investigating the apparent murders last week in Harare of a student from the
University of Zimbabwe and two other men whose identities are not known or
which authorities have not made public.

The Zimbabwe National
Students Union put out a statement Monday saying all three homicide victims
were university students, but the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said its own
investigation had identified just one of the slain men as a student.
Tafirenyika Mugwidi was a second-year humanities student at the University
of Zimbabwe.

All of the victims were found in a secluded area along the
road from Harare to Harare International airport, stripped of their clothes,
the NGOs said. Mugwidi was found dead Friday and the two others were taken
to a hospital where they died later.

Mugwidi was buried in Mhondoro,
Mashonaland West, on Tuesday, after a coroner determined that he had been
murdered, nongovernmental sources said.

Zimbabwe Republic Police
spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said that he could not comment immediately on the
apparent murders.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition spokesman McDonald
Lewanika, coordinator of the Students Solidarity Trust, told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the three men were victims of
the economic crisis which now obliges people to walk long distances, leaving
them vulnerable to random violence.

The problems that dog the opposition in Zimbabwe

01 August 2007

By
Brian Kagoro

The malaise that dogs the opposition in our country has
three inter-related dimensions, which we have collectively articulated on
this platform, and yet we are happy to ignore when these dimensions manifest
in their crudest forms. First, there is an ideological crisis because the
main opposition politics in our country was born out of a clear social base
and veered into the neo-liberal trap of reducing its function to contesting
elections. Its mission was over-simplified into that of supplanting an
exhausted nationalist oligarchy of looters, pretenders and
brutes.

But removal of kleptocracy by itself hardly constitutes a
uniting ideological premise for a movement in a country in such dire need of
structural transformation. Such that consensus on the need to remove Mugabe
does not extend to a re-construction programme for leadership at all levels
as well the economy and political architecture of our
country.

Second, there is a crisis of political programming. Even
if one were to accept the argument that even the ANC did not have
ideological asymmetry when it assumed power in South Africa, one would be
forced to accept that it had a clear political programme that formed the
premise of its tripartite alliance (RDP). An election is not wholesome
rather holistic political programme. Particularly in a country where
systems, institutions and processes of sanity have been denuded to such a
vulgar extent. Yes unity is important, but that unity must be premised on a
political programme should ideological consensus prove difficult in the
short term.

Third, there is the question of leadership renewal.
In the last two decades Mugabe has managed to produce Simba Makoni, Jonathan
Moyo, Eddison Zvobgo, Joyce Mujuru, Emmerson Munangagwa, Xavier Kasukuwere,
Gideon Gono, Happyton Bonyongwe, etc. In each moment our attention have been
diverted by these constructions and at other times almost deceived by them.
Whilst the consistency of leadership in the MDC is commendable, perhaps the
party needs its own constructions. A lease of new blood and fresh ideas.
These would not supplant Morgan Tsvangirai but re-enforce and capture
national imagination and attention away from the banal political analysis of
Morgan and Arthur.

Perhaps, there are those who do not care
whether the opposition wins or loses the next election? They see the status
quo as favorable to their interests (personal or otherwise). Perhaps the
absurdities of the developments in the MDC are reflective of its
Zanufication? Rather reflective of an exclusive politics that we have all
entertained and romanced over the last five years? We have created camps and
fiefdoms and we have forgotten what it means to be truly inclusive. We elbow
each other out of opportunities and we malign each other in circumstances
and instances when we should be standing in
solidarity.

Perhaps the real undoing of our politics is our
tenacious appetite for opposing each other as opposed to the establishment.
When we ought to have been organizing, we have been agonizing? Instead of
gathering we have been scattering? The failure of opposition unity is in
essence a failure of the humane essence.....the ability to serve each other
and recognize and celebrate our respective strengths and shield our
respective weaknesses? After all none of us is an angel?

We
can never defeat Zanu PF standing to its political right. We have to stand
to its ideological left and dramatize the contradictions of its defensive
radicalism and contrived left rhetoric. We also have to accept that the
crisis of livelihoods in our country is not a disease of the post February
12, 2000. That it has its roots in the transition to independence as well
the disastrous SAPs and cocktail of neo-liberal poison that we imbibed from
1989 to 1999.

Our economic re-construction agenda should
therefore address poignant and pertinent issues relating to meeting of the
basic needs of the citizenry, creation of employment, eradication of poverty
and misery. It must also guide us towards a pro-people re-industrialization
model. In short ,it must allow us to imagine afresh an egalitarian society;
agrarian and national questions as well re-construction of the Zimbabwean
state and its role.

Civil society in Zimbabwe is very weak,
nevertheless resilient. It has survived extreme battering from a very brutal
system. However, civil society is also part of the problem as it exhibits
the same strands of divisionism. Some of it has even shamelessly constructed
itself along ethnic fiefdoms and regionalistic politics. Because of its
inherent appetite for sectarian politics ,it is ill disposed to play a
unifying role in our national politics. The MDC we may not be able to do
anything about, but civil society we should certainly focus our attention on
in a very self-reflective and critical manner.

At the risk of not
stopping when I have finished, let me end my rumblings right
here.

Zimbabwe Teachers Union Seeks To Reopen Talks On
Compensation

VOA

By Jonga KandemiiriWashington31
July 2007

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said it
is seeking a meeting with top government officials to demand salary
increases for its members, saying that with inflation running at several
thousand percent they cannot make ends meet.

Union officials said
salaries are far under the poverty line of $8.5 million monthly living costs
for a family of six.The union said it has started holding consultative
meetings with its members and hopes to meet with government officials next
Wednesday.

The union seeks a minimum monthly salary of $8.5 million
versus $2.9 million currently being earned by teachers, and income tax
breaks, among other demands.

Members of the union went on strike
January 31 and returned to work February 22 after the government agreed to
raise their wages.

PTUZ General Secretary Raymond Majongwe told reporter
Jonga Kandemiiri that Harare must revisit salaries quarterly to cushion
teachers from rampant inflation and to keep the country's educational system
from collapsing due to teacher emigration.

Send all adverts in word document as short as possible (no
tables, spreadsheets, pictures, etc.) and quote your subscription receipt
number ormembership number.Notify the JAG Office when Advert is no
longer needed, either by phone oremail.Adverts are published for 2 weeks
only, for a longer period please notifythe JAG office, by resending via
email the entire advert asking for theadvert to be
re-inserted.

Please send your adverts by Tuesdays 11.00am (Adverts will
not appear untilpayment is received.). Cheques to be made out to
JAGMA.

The JAG office is now an official
agent for GSC Generator Service (Pvt) Ltdand receives a generous commission
on sales of all Kipor generators andequipment. Generators are on view at
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Going
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By way of loan or donation to the JAG Trust. The Trust is
Capacity Buildinga New Project which necessitates the furnishing of an
office with desks,chairs, cupboards and shelving. Any surplus office
furniture or trimmingswill be welcomed. Phone
799410.

ZNSPCA : We are looking to purchase two
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Currently we have no spare for thesevehicles. We are also looking for tools
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of the above equipment will begreatly appreciated.Head Office: 04 -
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I am looking for a
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